The present disclosure relates to the field of document digitization, and more particularly, to a system and method for digitizing documents and encoding information relating to the digitized documents in order for the digitized documents and the encoded information to be displayed by handheld computing devices. The information relating to the digitized documents can be encoded using JPEG2000.
JPEG2000 provides several advantageous features that make it useful in interacting with low bandwidth devices. One such feature is its ability to encode images and provide a low quality version of the scanned image which can be quickly loaded into a window for viewing. Additionally, the JPEG2000 Interactive Protocol (JPIP) defined as Part 9 of the JPEG2000 set of standards provides a methodology for selective access to needed image data for a JPEG2000 viewer. This methodology reduces the amount of information that needs to be processed to display an image. Another advantageous feature of JPEG2000 is its Region of Interest feature. This feature is often used by cartographers and others interacting with maps, since the feature allows specific locations (or regions of interest) within an image to be identified and tagged. JPEG2000 provides the ability to encode the region of interest information within the image file. It is noted that JPEG2000 also specifies another form of Region of Interest in which detailed image data is encoded in the codestream allowing early rendering of detailed portions of parts of an image.
The conventional, prior art process for digitizing mail and delivering it to the addressee will now be described with reference to FIG. 1. In Steps 100 and 102, incoming mail is received in a mailroom and sorted. Generally mail is sorted based on delivery priority and/or mail stops. For instance, mail delivered to certain executives may be sorted out first and delivered prior to completion of the rest of the sort process and other mail delivery. Mail to be delivered digitally is opened and prepared or prepped for scanning in step 104. This includes opening the mail, unfolding, removing staples, separating out material that can not be scanned (books and other items) and/or other actions necessary prior to scanning the mail. Mail which is not going to be delivered digitally proceeds through a standard incoming mail processing path.
In Steps 106 and 108, the mail documents are scanned and converted to a PDF file or other format suitable for distribution. The scanner may be a standalone scanning device, a multifunction device (MFD) or some other document scanner. The only requirement is that it be able to produce a binary, gray or color image representation of the paper-based document. The paper, mail documents are then sent for archival or destruction.
In Step 110, the recipient(s) is identified and the digitized document is attached to an electronic mail note and the recipient's e-mail address is found in the corporate address book (or a local address book). Another approach is to store the scanned document into a repository in Step 110A and e-mail the recipient(s) a URL link or other electronic link to the document. This has the advantage that fewer large e-mails are sent through the e-mail system. In addition, it ensures that an original electronic version of the document exists in a repository for audit and regulatory purposes.
In Step 112, the document is sent to the recipient(s). In Step 114, the recipient receives the e-mail with the scanned document as an attachment (or a URL link that needs to be followed to gain access to the document). When the document is accessed, in Step 116 a reader, such as Adobe® Reader or other reader capable of reading PDF files, such as CorelDraw®, loads the file, interprets the PDF stream and generates the first page for viewing by the recipient(s). Viewing may require opening a connection to the repository, authentication and downloading of the digitized documents.
For memory constrained devices, such as handheld computing devices, there are several major drawback, they may not be able to store and display the complete PDF file or they may take a long time to download the file, since they are generally connected to the corporate infrastructure via low bandwidth wireless networks. Additionally, for handheld computing devices having small displays, once the document is displayed, the user needs to zoom in and pan around the document to find and read the desired information. These drawbacks have historically made it difficult and cumbersome to use handheld computing devices for reading Digital Mail and other digitized documents.
FIG. 2 shows what a digitized document D1 looks like displayed using Adobe® Reader on a handheld computing device designated by reference numeral 200. To help with readability of textual documents on handheld computing devices, Adobe® Reader provides the ability to reflow text. This enables a portion of the digitized document D1 to be displayed by a display 202 of the handheld computing device 200 in a format more suitable to the screen size of the handheld computing device 200. However, this technique does not work with scanned documents, such as digitized mail.